No-spend January/Frugal February - the no-spend challenge continues

[roguepixie]

OK - am attempting to start the second thread ... hope this works.

Occasional lunches --> Packed lunches.
Staying in nights- what do you mean by this? ready meals?

My advice MrsWobbly is to take it one day at a time. What you need to start having NSD (No Spend Days) as a challenge. Going out with only a tenner on you (or even a fiver, can be done), is a good place to start. Do not be tempted to spend more to compensate if you have to spend on a particular day.

Stop going to the supermarket for a bit and make with what you have in the house- I think we all started like that back in January. You'd be surprised how inventive you can be with what's already there.

Hello all - and welcome to the new joiners. Have been away for half term at MIL's - meant we had free food and board (at poor MIL's expense - DH pretty much ate her out of house and home!) but we paid for all outings as a quid pro quo. Wasnt pretty - £18 for swim at local adventure pool, £85 (!) for day trip to a zoo/playpark (72 on tickets - the rest on hot drinks there as was freezing), £20 on trip to pub for drinks and crisps with friends and around £10 on parking - not to mention £50 on petrol. Still back home, back at work and back on the straight and very narrow.

MrsWobbly - I found (i) meal planning (and HEAVILY reducing alcohol intake) (ii) taking lunch to work and (iii) restricting my "me only" spends to £10 a week really helped shave my expenses down.

Hi all, been away for the weekend, had a nice birthday trip up to my grandparents. Spent twice as much as intended on my mum's birthday (day after mine) but hey ho she deserves it. Nearby there are some friends of DH's , and it turned out at the last minute it was a (child's) birthday there too, so we had to buy a last minute gift and (DH decided) two bottles of wine. I reckon we could have got away without the wine, but they were feeding us a meal. I got in a right mood about various things (is never much of a pleasure for me at theirs) and didn't really enjoy the afternoon.

Then for my actual birthday treat we got nicely dressed up and went to a really good foodie pub, but DS has had croup the last few days, been off his food and sleeping badly. DH woke him from sleeping in the buggy so he could eat/whinge/wriggle (more of the latter two), and then he chose the moment sitting on my lap sharing a bowl of apple and plum Gruffalo Crumble to throw up. So I see a dry cleaning bill in my future. Still, last year on my birthday I nearly got stranded for an extra 24 hrs on a mid Atlantic island on the way home from a week long work trip when I was still BF-ing DS and pining badly for him... am getting used to crap grown-up birthdays!

Went shopping with my mum on Saturday morning and bought (oh fuck this is just depressing me even more!!!) some lovely new control underwear . I have had four nights of broken sleep (thank you DS) and really think I should cry off from work and go home. The leaving do I was supposed to be out at tonight has been called off and so I will have a superb evening of tidying the house ahead of me. Joy. Think I can see in my imminent future. now though.

That's DS on my lap, not DH. In case unclear

Thanks duchesse - the staying in nights are when we think we are being good by not going out and instead we get a take away and a bottle of wine etc. So technically technically it is a saving against what we would spend if we went out

I do mainly make packed lunches that's why I can't understand that ridiculous amount! When I look at the lunches they ususally involve wine and are around £12... stupid.

I have started making tow lots of each meal and freezing them with the plan of not food shopping on the last week of the month.. .will let you know how it goes - but yes NSD today, and take each day as it comes. I have my instructions - wish me luck :)

I know it sounds shit and I'm sorry for being a princess but it is harder to cut spends when you have the money there. I have tried sending it over to my savings account when i get paid but it is sat there looking at me saying.. "spend me, spend me..."

Focus on your long term goal Wobbly - you WANT to make the move to the new job and by sending cash to your savings and locking it away you are making that happen. And by sewing the principles of canny spending - or rather no-spending - you'll make the transition far less painful.

Happy belated birthday Lexilicious - sorry DS was sick on you! What a present...

Thanks - yes I do! I keep telling myself - "past July you won't have the choice to sepnd this money so get used to it and stop whining"

Okay - so no spending today, will draw a tenner on the way home tonight and then get DH to hide my wallet until Saturday x

And have birthday lex sorry about the sick too. I gave up on lunches out with kids to be honest - they never eat what they order! Although, DD is nearly 6 now and she is quite a joy to sit and eat lunch with... most of the time

MrsWobbly- can you lock it up somehow instead of having it in an easy access account? Maybe start playing the stock exchange in a small way or put it in a bond or some other kind of locked savings plan?

I did think about that but I will need it by July and I will need to take some of it out in chunks for legitamate spending purposes to set up my new career... I just need to be stronger - and it starts today

(I will also be thinner without all the wine and lunches!)

parttime - cheers for the bread pudding recipe; never tried bp but sounds delish and I am terrible for not using the ends of bread before they go stale and get thrown out so defo going to try this.

rogue - sock knitting! v impressed. I tried once and didn't get past the heel... I am thinking even my hat plan was too ambitious as pattern I chose is quite fine yarn and going much slower than I hoped...

jenduck - wow, that does sound like a big stressful change. hope it all works out well for you and family.

well, on the health and beauty theme, I need tips on the health side atm... currently off work with a nasty cough/cold (feverish/sinus pain and coughing making me vomit every now and then). I know sleep and rest is what I really need, but any brilliant frugal remedies also gratefully accepted!

wobbly - by facial oil cleansing do you mean this kind of thing? - www.theoilcleansingmethod.com/ - I tried for a bit once, and quite pleasant but a bit of a faff so I didn't really get in the habit of it. I do use olive oil as a make-up remover - just on a bit of cotton wool or tissue, and then wash and pat dry. I find it much nicer than any other make-up remover I've ever tried. Never used 'proper' moisturiser or cleanser or anything like that really.

Re the spending - the good thing about spending so much is that it should be relatively easy to cut down a lot quite quickly! I think you just need a plan of action and to keep your goal in mind. If you look at each of those categories you listed there's probably quite easy things you can do for each to cut down.

That's what I mean yes. It does seem like a bit of a faff... but anything to stop me using expensive products. I have used baby oil as a make up remover before and it worked great! Maybe I could use that all over my face... it works for babies!

mackrel, a friend of mine told me of a Polish remedy for colds: peel and halve an onion, place onion cut side down in small bowl and sprinkle sugar over the top (only a bit, not masses ), cover and leave in fridge for a day - the liquid that forms in the bottom of the bowl is what you take - two tsp every so often. She swears by it.

Btw, don't get too impressed by my sock knitting exploits...I have yet to do one satisfactorily...I think the Gruffalo might be getting the things I am coming out with

Welcome wobbly. It is hard to economise when you know the money is there and you are used to spending what you want. Perhaps you could limit yourself to one takeaway a month? Reduce the expenditure on 'going out' - don't know what that encompasses but it does seem a fair amount to be spending. Definitely reduce the weekday lunch bill - cutting alcohol (on any food expenditure) is a really good way to reduce the bill. Your food bill is quite high (similar to mine before starting to be frugal and for the same number of adults/child)- I have reduce mine significantly by going to a fruit/veg stall once a week and a once or twice a month visit to the butcher - as they get to know you they often charge you a little less. I then limit myself to two (max) Waitrose deliveries a month for the store cupboard stuff. I do sometimes have to pick up stuff during the course of the month but I am finding it easier to stick to the list now and not buying a whole heap of stuff I don't need. Meal planning really helps with the shopping, tbh - make a plan for the week and shop according to what you are going to cook.

Spent £2.76 at the Post Office today (Ebay sales). No other expenditure expected.

Sorry, Happy Birthday Lexi. Sorry it was a bit ...meh. I am so used to crap adult birthdays now it's water off a duck's back .

Sorry, not having a good day . Will bugger off 'til I can be positive ...

Mrswobbly, maybe try making your own pizza, curry or stirfry! It's amazing how much nicer they are made from scratch and it is much healthier. There's loads of us that do this on the thread. Also go through your dvds etc to see what you havent watched in ages or see if there is a good film or tv series on tv. Borrow books from the library. They also do dvds. Invite some friends around for dinner. DH and I even play Scrabble or card games. Nights in definitely don't need to cost much.

I have not tried oil cleansing, but have been doing hot cloth cleansing. I definitely recommend Sali Hughes's collumn too.

I got a £30 Amazon gift card for my birthday from ILs (which is going to satisfy my book hunger for a while) and SIL came over with cream cakes. Nice day so far.

Wow good luck with your breath after that concoction

That's a great idea about meal planning for 2 weeks and buying your store cupboard stuff then buying from fruit and veg stores for fresh. We are vegan so we get longlife soya milk anyway so no need for that. It's just bread that would pose a problem but I could allow myself a quick nip in to the coop for that.. as long as I don't take the kids in and I close my eyes when I walk past chocolate aisle Actually if I bought for two weeks and made double meals I could freeze meals for the next two weeks and save loads of cash.. jeees I'm excited now!

I have no idea why our nights in cost so much

I am annoyed that looking at my spending I reckon i could have saved an extra £200 this month if I'd been a bit more careful. Still ,there's plenty of time. I'll pull my finger out now. I started a thread about frugal beauty on S&B a few days ago and that was fab for tips.

Hi all.

Currently hiding at my parents' as the boy is being a little diva today and I just couldn't cope with it anymore. So, that's petrol used getting over here (50 mile round trip) and now my bloody phone has stopped working. It's a fancy HTC one that I have on contract. I have Orange Care insurance so I can get a new one, but I remember them sending me a letter saying that the 'admin' fee for each claim was rising from £15 to £50. Hopefully they'll waive that, given that I (for once) haven't dropped the handset in water or the like. It's simply stopped working.

And since my handset doesn't work, I need to phone them (on a mobile number) from the landline to arrange for a new phone. No doubt I'll be kept on hold for ages, too.

Money is now officially tight in the Spew household. So, if they do demand £50, I'll be seething.

So, rogue, I know what you mean about having a bad day.

That is exactly like me - I was popping in to the local italian restaurant for them to box up our Wednesday night dinner at £20 a pop if I felt too tired to cook in January.. now I'm freezing portions of lentil hotpot I went in to House of Fraser in January for a birthday present for my niece, and came out 25 minutes later with three Clarins products, a chanel eyeshadow and a bottle of perfume for myself.. Now I'm talking about using babyoil to remove my make up

No one in my family seems to care though, theyre quite happy. I have that same problem with DP, we live together but we have always kept our money seperate. We always split things down the middle but it's now going to have to be the case that he pays or we don't go out. He can't afford to pay for everything we do now, out of just his money so he will have to limit himself too if that makes sense.

Still, he has told me that money isn't everything and he just wants a simple life with me in it and me happy so I will hold him to his word

This thread is great - I will take up residency if no one minds

Hope your day improves spew

Oh, and the toaster packed up last night. Got a new one from ebay this morning - it's a 'graded' Morphy Richards 4 slicer, which was half the RRP as it might be a little scratched or something.

Anyway, if you need new kitchen appliances, it's worth checking out ebay for official items that have been rejected for some minor reason.

My aunt got a toaser off freegle last month